Management

I think it was Winston Churchill who said “I am easily satisfied with the very best”.  I wonder if we always strive to deliver the very best to our clients. I wonder. Because to do so requires an unbelievable laser-like focus on their fears and frustrations, needs and desires, to the exclusion of all else.

I recently have experienced two offerings that are truly excellent – world class, honed, magnificent, near perfect.

C’est Magnifique…

The first was an overnight stay with dinner and breakfast at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons in Great Milton. I won’t go into the minutiae of what it was like to stay in a 2 Michelin star Oxfordshire country pile but suffice to say they know what they’re doing and they do it superbly and have been for 25 years. Right down to the perfect lemon cake with afternoon tea. And they make money.

Fruity…

The second magnificent experience is Blackberry. In October last year I changed my Blackberry for an HTC smartphone. Once my initial ardour had subsided I was left with something that, although brilliant for some, was not brilliant for me. Despite the massive capability of the thing, it couldn’t do well what I needed – to call the right number when I needed it to without having to push 8 buttons, and to send, receive and manage emails and texts efficiently and effectively. I got to the stage where I was scared to pick it up because to do so invariably activated some App, or called the wrong person.

So, I went back to Blackberry and was reminded all over again how their product, for me, is world class, honed, magnificent, near perfect. And they make money.

School’s out…

The reason I question whether we aim to be excellent is because we are taught to be average. Having just had parent’s evening for my two boys (held from 4 to 6pm – eh…don’t get me started) I am struck once again by the focus on “failure” – the areas where the child is excellent are “banked”, with relief, and the focus turns to the “weaknesses” in an attempt to get them to the average. Now don’t get me wrong, the basics must be secured at a minimum level – reading, writing and arithmetic. That’s fine. But once this has been achieved, the focus should be on excellence – focus on strengths, not weaknesses, whether it be academic, vocational, sport, art etc..

Role models…

Every business biography I read – the leaders in question focused on their strengths and managed their weaknesses – usually by getting someone else to do it.

Free transfer…

And in sport – do top sports teams try to get their under-performers up to snuff? No. They let them go and they focus on making the great ones superstars. A focus on excellence.

Business is not about being perfect. In business, value = money.

VALUE = MONEY…

The more value you give, the more money you will attract. At a high level, it’s a true differentiator and of course it fits with the well honed idea that there’s only two business strategies – niche or massive. Le Manoir or MacDonald’s. Each is valid but for the small business person where customer intimacy is often key, the customer will be disappointed if you put a burger down in front of them.

So, for all of you who have “tart up the website”, “rewrite the brochure”, “redesign the logo” etc on your to-do list today – score them out, now. Ask yourself what fears, frustrations, hopes and desires you fulfil for your clients and how can you do more of this and do it better. A relentless focus on this will make your business even better than it is and maybe one day some idiot will be blogging about your lemon cake and in so doing generate more custom for you.

Have a week of excellence. Have an excellent week.

Here’s a short and, I hope sweet, Pearl.

When you’re going about your job, and you are wondering what to do next, there’s only really one question to ask yourself:

What’s the most important thing I can do NOW to move closer to my goals?

Now if you’ve been in my presence for more than 2 minutes you will have a list of high-payoff activities – the critical activities which will deliver your goals and if you ignore even one of them, or fail to spend enough time on all of them, you WILL NOT achieve your goals.

So go to the list and scan it and choose the most important one and do it next. Repeat to fade.

Some people don’t like filling their diary with high-payoff activities. They like a bit more “freedom”. I hesitate to say it but that’s actually all right, provided the lack of diary-planning isn’t a productivity  avoidance technique, but only you will know the answer to that.

I have one client who hardly ever uses her diary at all – but she has a list of high-payoff activities and when she’s spent a couple of hours on one she moves onto another. She’s very productive without actually scheduling anything. She’s disciplined. She doesn’t let the lack of a schedule turn into a lack of productivity.

If you don’t have a list of high-payoff activities go here now, before it’s too late.

One of the great things about this question – What’s the most important thing I can do NOW to move closer to my goals?, is that you cannot seriously answer “clear my email”, “do yet another edit on that PowerPoint”, or any of the other myriad issues that push and jostle their way into our field of view.

Here’s an idea – write the question out on a Post-It note and stick it on your screen, close Outlook, switch off your phone and spend the next 2 hours taking a giant stride toward your goals. Bliss.

Time management remains a perennial issue for us all. There’s too much to do and too much shiny stuff around that screams at us “look at me.” There are a million characteristics of poor time management, but here are eight of the most egregious:

Having No Purpose

Yes indeed…the old purpose thing. What am I here for? Difficult to really get a hold of purpose but a good place to start is with values – what are my core beliefs? (beyond the stuff no one would argue with, e.g. fair, compassionate, respectful etc, etc). What turns you on? What do you love doing? From purpose comes goals and from goals comes focus and from focus comes productivity – easy.

No real understanding of what’s important

People make this mistake all the time. They have no real understanding of what will deliver success and what will merely facilitate it. Which is OK actually because it’s not always clear, but it does need to be understood so if it’s not clear, it’s experiment time. Do stuff and if it works, keep doing it. If not, do something else. There are usually only a handful of critical activities that will deliver success. The rest are secondary and will not make the difference.

No self-improvement

What holds us back is usually inside us. We need to drag it out screaming into the light and drive a stake through its heart. It’s a fight to the death and we must win. This is a time management issue because until we slay what holds us back we cannot be productive because you cannot be productive doing half the things you need to do – doesn’t make sense.

No Assertiveness

You must have loads of this. With yourself and with all those around you. I trundled off with Jennifer and the boys to see a car today at a dealer who shall remain anonymous. The boys have a fixed idea of what they want – a blue convertible.  It must be “blue, with a “wibbly-wobbly roof”. The dealer explained politely that this was a “90 minute process” – I assume he meant the sales process and not whatever it was he was doing with his hands in his pockets.  That was his agenda. We had a different agenda – quick test drive of a specific car and then home for a chat (without the car salesman). There can only be one agenda – yours or someone else’s. Best to make it yours.

No understanding of own rhythms

Not all hours are equal. Some of us are best in the morning, some are better in the afternoon. Different times of day are better for different activities. We can try to manage our diaries accordingly and do what’s important when we are at our best.

Thinking Multi-tasking works

Fragmenting our time into ever smaller slivers – ten minutes on this, twenty minutes on that. Total disaster. It is massively inefficient and is getting dangerously close to the fantasy that is multi-tasking. Our brains are much better with uninterrupted chunks of time on specific, single tasks.

Being Reactive

There’s always a time to be reactive, but with some people it becomes the default. Almost all activity is in response to an external event – email, phone call, colleague’s request – it goes on. Unless these people are offering to pay your mortgage this month, be very careful – they are trying to steal your time!

Having a To Do List

Oh no! Usually the number one symptom of many of the issues above…quickly throw it away, get out a big sheet of beautiful white paper and write on it the most important thing you can do now. Then go and do it. Once that’s done….get out another sheet of beautiful white paper and write on it the most important thing you can do now. Then go and do it. Once that’s done…….

Social psychologist Irving Janis coined the term “groupthink” to describe the situation where a group of people who have a high level of cohesiveness develop a desire to maintain unanimity that overrides their motivation to consider the facts of an issue in a realistic manner. In other words, they put “getting on with each other” above clear, objective thought.

There’s more of it about that you think. Political parties and religious bodies are fertile grounds for groupthink, but no type of organisation is immune.

What are the symptoms of groupthink?

There is often an illusion of invulnerability – “we are special!” Also, there is often a belief in the inherent morality of the group – “we are right!” There is very selective gathering of information – of course only that which accords with the group’s view. And there is self-censorship – opinions are tempered and truth is discarded to maintain the group’s cohesion. Finally, pressure is put on dissenters to “protect” the group from negative views.

So, what causes groupthink?

Well, as I mentioned, high levels of cohesion are involved. Also, the group tends to be insulated from any alternative opinions, either by design or through believing outside opinions are not necessary. Another key cause of groupthink is when there is a very directive leader who isn’t shy at making her thoughts known.

Is groupthink bad…?

I’m afraid so. The group limits discussions to only a few alternatives. Ideas favoured by the majority will be quickly adopted without much thought for downsides or alternatives. Expert opinion is never sought. The group is highly selective in gathering information. There is high confidence in success and therefore there is seldom a Plan B….

So, how to prevent groupthink…?

Seek or be a devil’s advocate. Encourage everyone to be a critical evaluator. The leader should keep her thoughts to herself. (I used to have a boss who would carefully outline his position on major issues before asking those around the table what they thought…ha!)

You can divide into subgroups or set up independent groups. Discuss issues with outsiders and invite others into the group to bring in fresh ideas.

And if you think this doesn’t apply to you because you are self-employed I’m afraid it does. You don’t need a group for groupthink, you can do it all by yourself in your own head….now there’s a thought…

I aim to be 50% productive and usually manage it, (15% being the norm). What I mean by that is I aim to spend 50% of my time on high-payoff activities – the activities which, if neglected, will lead to goal failure. Most people are around 15% productive. Strange but true.

I spent all of last Friday doing one particular high-payoff activity. A single task. I scheduled a full day for it in my diary. It involved me teaching myself something I needed to learn. I had no distractions – no email, no phone calls…nothing. I completed the task – I learned what I had to learn. I switched the phone and email back on at 430pm, dealt with what could not wait and then switched everything off again, all before 530pm.

I felt wonderful. In control, purposeful, satisfied. It was a good day in the office.

It reminded me of the critical importance of focus to productivity. Focusing on one task for an extended period of time. At least half a day. It feels like a luxury, but it isn’t. A whole day is even better. With the phone and the email turned off. Check them every two hours if you must. But don’t get sucked in – just check them and only deal with what is truly urgent. And that means urgent to you, not the other person.

In any working week, it is much better to give each of ten high-payoff activities a half day than to spend each of the five days doing all ten high-payoff activities for 45 minutes each. That’s the road to madness.

This is because our brains work at their best when we allow ourselves to focus. Multi-tasking only works at a trivial level – I can drink beer, eat pizza and watch the football at the same time but these are not high-payoff activities. You cannot do two high-payoff activities at the same time. I’ve said this before but it’s critically important that we reserve substantial chunks of time for the important stuff. Our world has a huge and increasing ability to fragment our attention to the point where we are so distracted we cannot function properly.

So when you catch yourself doing a dozen different things in a day and rushing around like a mad thing, it’s time to ask if you’re really focused on the important stuff, or have you slipped into “I must get through my to-do list” mode. You cannot get through a to-do list. It’s against the laws of physics.

As I keep saying to my clients, chief execs don’t stand up at the annual general meeting and say “we had 98% to-do list completion last year”. No. They talk about metrics that represent goal achievement…sales, profit etc.

Here’s another wee prompt – when you hear yourself say “I’m busy” remember that “busy” is usually a euphemism for “I don’t really feel in control”. And you cannot achieve when you’re not in control.

You can achieve when you identify your high-payoff activities and give them the time and space they deserve. And you will become calmer, clearer-headed and you will get what you want.

Strange as it may seem, you can get more done by doing less.

OK but firstly, why bother?

You have two choices with people who work for you.

Choice 1

Empower your team. They will grow, become happier and more useful, allowing you to do bigger and better things, and in so doing you become happier and more useful too.  It’s a win-win. Everyone achieves more of their potential.

Choice 2

Don’t empower your team. They will not grow, become less happy and less useful and will resent you because you have institutionalised them. You will not get the chance to do bigger and better things and you may develop an illusion of indispensability which is just another way of chaining yourself to your current role with no means of escape. It’s a lose-lose.

I imagine you’re finding Choice 1 a wee bit more appealing.

So, how to bring about this fabulous state of empowerment? There are a few things to think about…

Structure

Is the organisation set up to facilitate or hinder success? There’s no point in being customer intimate if everyone works in silos with an internal focus. There’s no point in pursuing a differentiation strategy and slashing the development budget.

Skills

The fact is that on-the-job training, whilst important, is often a very slow way to half-learn how to do something badly. Skills training and coaching is the fast-track to competence and through that confidence.

Systems

Internal and external. Get the critical business systems right so that people can work effectively and efficiently. Marketing systems that work; CRM systems that work. Accounting systems, key account management systems. It’s endess. Almost everything is or should be seen as a system. This is not suffocating, it’s liberating because it allows people to spend their time improving systems and giving more value through their creativity and initiative rather than re-inventing the wheel every day.

Managers

Make sure the bosses are not disempowering staff through control freakery, failure to delegate, and all the other crimes of the poorly training or badly managed manager.

Management is of course getting things done through other people. Management is not about setting yourself up as the charismatic mega-being; the only one who can do things; the indispensible super-achiever, surrounded by a team of barely sentient worker bees who, after training, might be able to carry your bags. I exaggerate to make a point, but I’m sure you might recognise this type of manager…

Joint Goal Setting

Staff should set their own goals. There needs to be iteration of course as some will play a game and some will genuinely underestimate their abilities, but let them take the lead. Then they have more ownership and motivation and a primal need to deliver what they said they would.

Delegate

The essence of management. People have jobs because tasks have been permanently delegated in the past. That’s how organisations come into being and grow. From a people development point of view, delegation is like human growth hormone. How’s that for an analogy!? I’m quite pleased with that one.

Share Information

Information is not power. Empowered teams with information is power.

Show Confidence

Show confidence in your team. Not wild “you can do anything” nonsense. More a quiet, positive, supportive “I can help you be even better”.

So that’s empowerment. An overused “buzzword” that is seldom unpicked and understood sufficiently to allow positive action can be taken.

Once you empower your team you become more empowered yourself. What goes around comes around. How good is that?

Tweet

So, we’re twenty four days into 2011 already. Almost February. My Mother tells me time continues to speed up as you get older. Ug! It’s already going past at 600mph. So fast that it’s difficult to keep the really important stuff at the front of the mind. So easy to switch the neck-top computer off, do what we have always done and miss the chances to improve on last year, no matter how good last year was.

Well that would be a shame so here’s my Top 10 list of self-management essentials to ensure you use the free will you most certainly have, but can so easily neglect.

Let’s start at number 1…

Values

Straight in at number one, since about 500 B.C….values. What do you believe in? What matters to you? Values drive all effective action. Get this right. It’s the foundation.

Purpose

Number 2…the angelic offspring of values….purpose.  The essence of leadership – whether of oneself or of others. No purpose…no point. Start with values and from them…derive your purpose. Paying the mortgage is not a purpose. You were put on the earth for a wee bit more than that.

Plan

Number 3…values and purpose…now get a plan. You are part of a plan, whether you like it or not. The only question is who writes the plan. It’s either you or someone else. If you don’t wish to be the author there are many who will take your place, but they won’t write the plan with you in the starring role.

Goals

Number 4…goals. You have a purpose…very good.  Time to get a bit more real. A bit more tangible. So, how will I achieve my purpose? Goals. Goals. Goals. Think of goals as small steps on the route to achieving your ultimate purpose.

If you don’t have goals get some help. I really mean it. When a coach/manager/mentor says to you to set goals, it’s like your doctor saying “stop smoking.” It’s not fashion. It’s not the latest thing. Just do it.

Action

Number 5…take massive action. Data collection is over. Thinking time is over. Define and focus on your high-payoff activities (the things that if you do NOT do, you will fail to achieve your goals). Work on your time management and personal productivity until you feel like you are in charge of yourself. Then you probably are.  Develop a steely, cold, single-minded determination to do what you need to do to deliver your goals and ultimately your purpose. Consider throwing away your TV. Then throw it away.

Measure

Number 6…measure. If it matters to you, measure it. No measurement…no feedback. No feedback…no catalyst for improvement. You’ve got to get very lucky very early to be successful without measuring what’s important. So, do you feel lucky? Well, do ya?

Fear

Number 7…fear. If you have a high-payoff activity that you do not do as much as you should, deal with the fear that stops you doing it. The mistake you’re probably making is attributing more pain to doing the thing than not doing it. This is easy to do because the pain of doing the thing is now, palpable and tangible. Whereas the pain of not doing it is some time off and seems less urgent. Reattribute the pain to inaction, not action. In other words, focus on the pain of regret, not the pain of discipline, as the great, late Jim Rohn said. This works.

Educate

Number 8…educate yourself. Never stop. Deepen and widen what you know and how you use it. This is better than TV. You have the time.

Humans

Number 9…partner with others. We work better in teams. Get into one. Either a mentoring group, a mastermind group or a business partnership. Something involving others. We are social and work better in teams. But beware…here be dragons. Unless those you choose to work with are in the same place as you, mentally, and share similar ambitions, they will be very bad for you, despite not being bad people.

Stop running

Number 10…take time out. This life is a marathon, not a sprint. Smell the roses.

That’s it. Why not focus on one of these areas right now…today. No matter how good 2010 was, 2011 can be better. Good luck.

As 2010 draws to a snowy close I reflect on the completion of my third year in business and I ask myself “What have I learned?”

Quite a lot really…

There is abundant opportunity…

I never really “got” this. But now I do. Life really isn’t a zero sum game at any level. It’s just that sometimes it can seem that way if we set low goals and miss them, do the wrong things, fail to do enough of the right things, target the wrong markets, and go about our business fearfully and defensively. Then it’s a struggle.

But with clarity, focus, confidence, real personal productivity and a laser like focus on what we need, it comes to us, once we know what it looks like.

We’ve got to love what we do…

This is about values. If we spend huge amounts of time doing stuff that doesn’t accord tightly with our values we’re running on the wrong fuel. Values drive behaviour and behaviour drives results.

I finally realised my one core value that isn’t banal is that I believe the greatest thing on earth is human potential and I will do what I can do make sure more of it is realised. This has been hugely clarifying for me. I guess I kind of knew it, but sitting down in a darkened room and homing in on my one core value has really helped me. I now do more of the right stuff and I have cut out a lot of the stuff that was not value-driven. Relief! It’s like being let out of jail.

We have everything we need…

It’s all here. Centuries of human endeavour, experience, knowledge. And all the people around us right now. Here’s a great question to ask someone. It gets a positive and valuable response 95 times out of a hundred. “Can you help me with……?” Try it.

If you boil a kettle it boils at a hundred degrees. Every time. If you do the things that people have done before you will get their results. This is not weird. It would be weird if it was not so.

The past is gone…

Good and bad. To relive it is a choice. Not a destiny. We are all conditioned to an almost frightening extent. But the conditioning process is not over. We are alive to conditioning now…right now. And we can do it to ourselves. And it doesn’t take long. Some people say 21 days to recondition ourselves in any area. I think that’s about right.

Our future is unwritten…

But it will be written. We can write it. We should write it. Because if we don’t someone else will. If we don’t have our own plan, we will be a part of someone else’s plan. Stark choice.

Our brain is beyond fantastic…

But it isn’t user friendly and it doesn’t come with a manual. We need to manage ourselves first and foremost, before we try to manage anything else. Deal with fear.  Change the level of fear attributed to an action. As Jim Rohn said “we are destined to suffer from one of two pains – the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.” Learn to fear regret with a vengeance. As a child fears monsters. Then the fear of discipline seems trivial. And procrastination and all the other stuff that hold us back are revealed to be just mice wearing monster suits.

We need to sharpen the saw…

I am amazed at how the people I consider to be successful switch off all the screens and take the time out to reflect on what they’ve done, to plan, to spend really good time with their families and come back renewed, refreshed, sharper than before, ready for the next chapter.

And so, to that end, I shall disappear for the first week in January to sharpen my saw. All being well with the weather, I shall be back with your next Pearl on 10^th January.

I wish you a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Call it what you will – Management Team, Leadership Team, Senior Team, Business Team. You name it.

If there’s two or more of you in your organisation, division, department etc, you need to be having a regular meeting to manage and lead.

That’s what you’re there for, right?

Here’s what to do –

1. Meet for at least one day, and preferably two days, every quarter, or better still every two months. Get out of the office. Stay over at least for one night. Have dinner and drinks. You are in a senior position and you need the time be a team. This is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Yes, it costs money, but not nearly as much as it costs when you don’t have these meetings. That costs real money.

2. Have a standing agenda. It might look like this –

• Review minutes and actions of last meeting – led by Boss, 30 minutes.

You need to agree that the minutes are a fair reflection of what went on. Then you review the actions agreed at the meeting. Failure to complete an action should be such a rarity that when it does occur it’s actually slightly shocking. And the failure should not be a surprise to the boss, as the reason for failure should have been communicated to the boss beforehand. The reason must be genuine – things may have changed, it may not have been possible to achieve the goal for external reasons. Maybe something else has to happen first. These are good reasons.

“I didn’t get round to it” or “I’ve been really busy” are bad reasons. They are thinly veiled code for “I don’t respect my colleagues or my boss. I make promises that I don’t keep. I cannot manage myself and I suspect I’m probably not really a senior manager.”

• Operational Review – led by Operations Managers – 60 minutes each.

Operations are what turn your strategy into results. So you may have a few operations that matter – marketing, selling, R&D, various projects, manufacturing, logistics etc. This part of the meeting is, in the case of manufacturing, about how many blue widgets you said you’d make, how many you made, an explanation of the difference if there is one, and a heads up on any looming issues.

• Strategic Issues – led by X – 2 hours

You may need to discuss something strategic. For example, a capital expenditure proposal. Or a change to strategy. Or a competitive issue. Or just some great idea you’ve had.

• HR Issues – led by X – 60 minutes.

Take some time out to discuss those pesky people that work in the organisation. How’s the management development programme coming along? Who’s a star? Who’s struggling? Who needs a free transfer to Accrington Stanley?

• Any Other Business (AOB)

Like it says – anything else you need to discuss.

Also, notice each agenda item has a nominated lead and a time slot.

3. The boss should get the agenda out two weeks beforehand. Some agenda items, e.g. the strategic issues, may merit a pre-meeting paper to be written and circulated. The boss should make this clear when the agenda is circulated and the papers should be made available by the nominated author at least one week before the meeting.

4. During the meeting, have a scribe – someone to take the minutes. This is not onerous. It’s a brief note of key points, decisions and actions (what is to be done, by whom, by when). Minutes should be circulated within 24 hours of the meeting closing.

5. These Management Team meetings should be scheduled 12 months in advance. They are NEVER cancelled. EVER. If you’re on the senior team you attend. You do NOT take your holiday when a Management Meeting is scheduled unless you are either a) psychotically passive aggressive and/or b) this is your non-verbal way of saying “I want out”.

These meetings are mission critical. The Management Team steers the ship. Does the thinking. Takes the plaudits. And the rap. It’s leadership at the end of the day.

We’re talking about maybe 8 days a year. Three to four percent of the working days. In this time your team will develop the trust it needs. You will get over your fear of conflict so that you can genuinely commit to action and accept real accountability for your actions. Then, and only then, will you really perform.

I have spent probably far too much of my life in meetings. It’s very much how we live in organisations. Whether it’s a client meeting, a supplier meeting or an internal meeting (which come in many flavours: one-to-one, small groups, large groups, one hour, one day, three day conference with 300 people). We spend a lot of time doing this.

It’s essential – teams do more than individuals ever can. But the opportunities for massive time wasting, partial brain atrophy and pins and needles in the bum are legion. Plus all that bad food. Don’t these people know sausage rolls should be WARM.

So, how to make sure you always have a worthwhile meeting?

Firstly, define what it is you want to learn. Maybe it’s an update from a colleague, or a subordinate. Maybe it’s understanding a new piece of technology in your marketplace. Or how the competitors are getting on. How the boss feels about something. Or a chance to get to someone who is hard to get to.

If there is not sufficient learning to be had from the meeting that merits the time involved don’t go, or go for a portion of the meeting.

Secondly, be clear on what you will contribute. And then contribute it. At the right time. And in the right forum. A few concise, well crafted words at the right time will stand you apart from the hesitators, repeaters and deviators that come out of the woodwork for most meetings.

Again, if you cannot contribute, ask yourself if you should be going to the meeting at all.

Thirdly, if you do go to the meeting, make sure there is an output, an action plan. Learning and contributing are good, but these need to lead to action – for you and those you interact with. There needs to be a new course of action coming out of the meeting.

Consider the three elements above in the context of your agenda. That’s right – your agenda. The meeting organiser may have her own agenda, but you don’t need to play. Certainly you must not be disruptive, or try to take over, unless you are the boss and a bad one at that. More subtly, simply prosecute your own agenda quietly but with purpose. No one else need know you came to the meeting with your own list of objectives.

And the bigger and longer the meeting the better. Because the meeting is the whole event – including the breaks, lunch, maybe dinner and the bar afterwards if it’s that sort of do.

What will you learn? Maybe from a coffee break chat with a targeted individual?

What will you contribute? Your contribution doesn’t have to be in open forum in front of everyone. It could be a well honed viewpoint given to a more senior person, again, maybe at lunch. Avoid talking for talking’s sake. Choose your targets.

What actions do you want others to leave with? Pretty much depends on your contribution. Is it compelling enough to merit action? How good are your influencing skills? Are you approaching your target in the right way?

It is quite possible that 299 people out of the 300 that attend a three day conference on the blue widget market at an airport hotel in Nordwestupperholtensteinburg will leave feeling frustrated and bored.

But not you.

If you have learned what you set out to learn, contributed well and appropriately, and have a few actions in place with key people, you will probably have been the most productive person there. You will not feel frustrated and bored. You will have made progress. And the numb bum will wear off, eventually.